thats really lame though... lets say your car pc gets disabled boom your idea doesn't work. but say stick that stand alone unit in a seat any thief would be like think wtf when i get my motorcycle and chase his *** down with a gun and the police. Some things are better standalone than integerated with the computer. Cool idea but not worth the effort...

i must be missing something here - his idea is standalone - why else use the pic??

tbh i wouldnt do it this way ie with fsk tones etc. why not just send the info in an sms? its much easier, less hardware needed and more reliable- prolly cheaper too.

q1 Can I control the phone so I can text out even if theres no built in modem as long as I have the data cable? Im trying to use a Nokia 3310 - yes - just connect data cable to phone and com port at correct baud + type your at commands - goto etsi.org and dl gsm 03.38 for all of em

u may need to decode a pdu (if the 3310 doesnt support text mode) so its not as simple as send xxxxx hello. goto www.dreamfabric.com to see the pdu

baud rate is norm 9600 - but nokia can communicate at 115200 or 9600, fbus or mbus depends on what cable u have

UPDATE:
...Im not to sure how I can get the PIC to pick up the mobile phone when it rings. Through a data cable perhaps? Once I get this thing working I wanna work on getting it to txt another phone when the car is in trouble, triggered alarm perhaps?

TIA

Am I right in thinking that because it doesn't need a modem it would be able to use a hands-free wire? As the PIC is doing the modulating of the tones rather than the phone? Perhaps when the phone is ringing (think it also rings down hands free) the voltage change could be detected, and the wires to answer on the hands free cable be shorted on detection of the voltage change?

I used an old Nokia 5110 Split the case and sloderd two wires on to the number 6 key. And hoked them upto to a relay output on the alarm. When the alarm goes off it shorts the conections to the 6 key, which is set to speed dial whetever number i put in to that location. I also use a handsfree adapter with the mic close to the pasenger copartment, and a charger pluged in permantly to a ignition feed. all this is house in a plastic case under thee hood out of the way, so it carn't be seen unless all the fuse box, wiper motor and part of the suspension is taken off.

tbh i wouldnt do it this way ie with fsk tones etc. why not just send the info in an sms? its much easier, less hardware needed and more reliable- prolly cheaper too.

Because I wanted to track the car in real time. As been mentioned texting do have a delay, it may not arrive until a few minutes or even hours. On top of that the tracking phone will need credit to continously text and can run out...unless theres a way around it.

On calling the tracking phone atleast the caller will have to pay, landline or another mobile...and can track for as along as you can afford it. With 300 baud Im still able to receive a complete $GPRMC sentence once every 2-3 secs. Im the moment Im not getting that due to the way the PIC is coded. It doesnt transmit until the complete sentence is received...this obviously waste time when it could have also receive while transmitting.

I still want the option of texting the location via sms...lets say if im curious if the car is still there or not. For example I can text the tracking phone "LOCATION", the tracking phone will then answer with the long/lat position. Would be nice if it can text me the exact road it is at but then that mean storing a whole map in the controller. Its about 150Mb for a UK map from TOMTOM...its still achievable with a CF card perhaps?

The live tracking is for following the theif with the basball bat ...sound exciting already

Am I right in thinking that because it doesn't need a modem it would be able to use a hands-free wire? As the PIC is doing the modulating of the tones rather than the phone? Perhaps when the phone is ringing (think it also rings down hands free) the voltage change could be detected, and the wires to answer on the hands free cable be shorted on detection of the voltage change?

Yes Im using the hand free bought somewhere for a £. The MIC is ripped out and connected directly to the FSK output of the controller. Im not sure if its possible to answer the phone via handfree cable. But as joc_06 said it still possible to answer using FBUS...I need to read up on that

You can't use the AT commands, because the 3310 has no integrated softmodem. You have to use the fbus protocol

Nice one...I think all the info I need are there just a matter of putting them together now. Did you use a PIC on your one?

I did mention the implementation of a software based FSK decoder. The hand-free kit can aslo be used to feed the mobilephone audio into the soundcard. A telephone pick up device should also work, I have only tried it on a cordless land line but not on a mobile phone.

Mik,

Your idea is cool. Im still trying to avoid a subscription fees, I just hate paying monthly/yearly. Just tried the trial on the website...it is a few road off but still its cool . Maybe I can take advantage of the free trial...use a PIC to text the trial. The PIC will then retext location to another phone...this way no GPS unit is required, even cheaper solutions as long as the site keeps the trial service